Government open to Chinese students but not at the cost of Australian arrivals

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Education Minister Alan Tudge says the government would only be willing to begin looking at receiving international students from China if the system did not impede Australian arrivals from entering the country.

"If a state government puts forward a proposal for quarantine arrangements above and beyond existing ones, such that it is not disadvantaging Australians coming home and they get the tick off from their chief medical officer, then of course we'll be looking at that," he said.

"None of the states and territories have such proposals to me at the moment other than South Australia, which is working on a very small one and is close to fruition."

The government injected more than $1 billion into the university sector for 2020 to assist it during the coronavirus pandemic, however, the sector claimed its losses were in the order of $1.8 billion and 17,000 jobs.

Mr Tudge noted universities collectively had an operating surplus of $2.3 billion in 2019 - above their 2020 losses - as they projected possible losses of up to $2 billion for 2021.

"We keep a close eye on this. We are concerned if there are job losses but we also have to understand they've had operating surpluses for many years before last year," he said.

"Enrollments, as of December 2020, were only down five per cent compared to 2019.

"Collectively to date over the last 10 years, there's been an aggregate of $16.7 billion of operating surpluses until last year, and yes, then there was likely a deficit".

YouTube url:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibK3XwGRoHg&ab_channel=SkyNewsAustralia
Created:	3. 2. 2021 03:59:20

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Government open to Chinese students but not at the cost of Australian arrivals